Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/04/02

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Subject: [Leica] M7/MP only 5% of US Leica Sales...
From: hopsternew at gmail.com (Geoff Hopkinson)
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 21:47:21 +1000
References: <eb6799211003291906r46c5c2e5id9fdad8aad4223cc@mail.gmail.com> <4BB45D65.2000801@hale-pohaku.com> <n2o36172e5a1004010415p36b18c25s61d8038fdd14e789@mail.gmail.com> <4BB5D055.50205@hale-pohaku.com>

Well percentages are meaningless without the actual numbers and remember
that I said guesstimate of 100 M9 cameras a day. In any case Leica Camera
has never been a high volume manufacturer and they are currently working
overtime and I guess maximum capacity too. What is known is that the M9 has
now been on sale for 6 months and demand is still considerably higher than
expected at Solms, not to mention what the M9 has done for lens demand.
Leica USA have said that their back orders are estimated to stretch for
another 6-7 months. In this small corner of the world even the first day
orders are not yet all fulfilled. So I doubt that Leica Camera are too
concerned currently abot demand tapering off after 12 months when one of
their large markets doesn't even expect to meet current orders by then. That
is what you can characterise as a quality problem to have! No doubt their
business plan continues for more new designs in the future to follow on.
Solms have already said that they will keep making film M's as well, for as
long as there is demand. It's been a tiny handful like that since the advent
of the M8, I think. No reason to imagine that they will stop production. No
new manufacturing capability required, no new development costs, no third
party supplier problems presumably (different from the R9 and DMR for
example) nothing in the hardware to be outdated and very mature products.
Presumably they are only being made on demand anyway, with a run produced
when sufficient orders are in hand. I see no issues at all. Entirely up to
buyers whether that tiny trickle of M7s and MPs continues. Remember that
every customer using a film M out there will get lenses that fit the newest
M's as well.

Cheers
Geoff
http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman


On 2 April 2010 21:09, Dennis <dennis at hale-pohaku.com> wrote:

> Good info 100 M9 units a day is probably 2000-2100 per month. If that is
> the case then unit sales of film cameras is about 5%. .
>
> Right now the sales of M9 is high due to it's recent introduction and high
> demand. Within a year I would expect it to reach levels comparable to the
> M8/8.2. I think that's about 1000 units per month. If film sales stay the
> same then their unit sales would rise to 9-10%.
>
> Still a very low number and it seems only a matter of time before Leica
> phases them out
>
>
> Geoff Hopkinson wrote:
>
>> Last year Stefan Daniel mentioned 100 units per month total (M7&MP) for
>> the
>> world with the majority going to China and Japan.
>> At a broad guesstimate the M9 may be achieving 100 units a day currently
>> and
>> the Leica USA President is estimating that they are 6 to 7 months
>> backlogged
>> currently. Stefan Daniel aready said that they can actually sell more film
>> M's than they are making right now...... but with M9 sales 40% higher than
>> expected and M lenses in much greater demand.........
>> Naturally all of those numbers are simply miniscule in the dSLR scale of
>> things anyway.
>> Very likely Leica is selling more film cameras than most, although I have
>> no
>> idea on Zeiss and Cosina sales for their film rangefinders. If you do want
>> a
>> new M9, M7 or MP maybe you need to talk to your dealer. They certainly
>> aren't discounting them or putting them in their clearance specials..
>>
>> Cheers
>> Geoff
>> http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman
>>
>>
>> On 1 April 2010 18:46, Dennis <dennis at hale-pohaku.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> *Q. What percent of your sales are film cameras?*
>>>
>>> The film cameras are running under 5 percent.
>>>
>>> This doesn't really tell me anything. Is that based on unit sales or
>>> revenue?
>>>
>>> Even if you knew the answer, the real question is how many units  of film
>>> cameras were sold last year compared to the units sold the year before
>>> that.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Richard Man wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Sad. The digital onslaught continues...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.northjersey.com/news/89346507_Leica_president_focused_on_big_picture.html?c=y&page=1
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>


Replies: Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] M7/MP only 5% of US Leica Sales...)
In reply to: Message from richard at imagecraft.com (Richard Man) ([Leica] M7/MP only 5% of US Leica Sales...)
Message from dennis at hale-pohaku.com (Dennis) ([Leica] M7/MP only 5% of US Leica Sales...)
Message from hopsternew at gmail.com (Geoff Hopkinson) ([Leica] M7/MP only 5% of US Leica Sales...)
Message from dennis at hale-pohaku.com (Dennis) ([Leica] M7/MP only 5% of US Leica Sales...)